Various web links I found to be of interest recently.
Joseph Stiglitz and Ray Dalio
In this context, the massive taxpayer-financed cash infusion to save some of the largest companies that are otherwise viable may present a unique opportunity to more effectively tackle inequality by bolstering the assets of the less well-off. If the same taxpayers who are bearing the costs of the bailout also share an upside when we recover prosperity, wealth will be shared more fairly.
This can be done by establishing a sovereign wealth fund, or national endowment, that pools the taxpayer's ownership shares from all the bailed-out companies and distributes regular dividends to all citizens. This is called "universal basic capital," as distinct from the idea of a universal basic income. Instead of only once again relying on redistributing income to close the gap after wealth has been created, the idea is that wealth should be shared upfront: "pre-distribution."
Economist James K. Galbraith refutes Lawrence H. Summers fears of inflation.
But deeper worries may be lurking beneath the surface of Summers's
essay. One concerns that $2 trillion in savings. Through direct
payments and expanded unemployment insurance, a fair amount
of that sum went to working-class households - the first big
chunk of change for many such families in decades. Having some
cash could make them less likely to borrow - and thus less
dependent on banks. Workers might even hold out for higher wages,
creating the "labor shortage" of which Summers speaks (at least
temporarily). More generally, when people have a bit of a financial
cushion, they are harder to boss around.
...
A second source of anxiety may be spotted in Summers's call
for "clear statements that the United States desires a strong
dollar." This is the secret angst of the hard-money men, an
insecure lot who fret that their position on the global totem pole
might not be entirely secure.
In more than two dozen interviews, scientists whose ideas fell outside
the dogma recounted how, for decades, believers in the dominant hypothesis
suppressed research on alternative ideas: They influenced what studies got
published in top journals, which scientists got funded, who got tenure,
and who got speaking slots at reputation-buffing scientific conferences.
...
Research focused on amyloid, and the development and testing of
experimental drugs targeting it, have sucked up billions of dollars
in government, foundation, and pharma funding with nothing to show for it.
While targeting amyloid may or may not be necessary to treat Alzheimer's,
it is not sufficient, and the additional steps almost certainly include
those that were ignored, even censored.
This gap between the grand promise of online education and its results has led to the rise of cohort-based courses (CBCs), interactive online courses where a group of students advances through the material together - in "cohorts" —-with hands-on, feedback-based learning at the core. The key difference between this phase of online ed and the MOOCs in the past decade? They are engaging and real-time, not just self-paced, and involve community-driven, active learning, as opposed to solo, passive content consumption. Cohort-based courses have a fixed start and end date, enforcing the real-time aspect and creating a scarcity within the abundance of content out there, and are often taught live. It's the equivalent of participating in a college discussion seminar - taught by an expert in the field, unconstrained by geography or school rank - as opposed to watching a static video. And, importantly, there's a built-in social contract in the form of the cohort.
Given the public nature of the ledger, cryptocurrency experts said,
all law enforcement needed to do was figure out how to connect the
criminals to a digital wallet, which stores the bitcoin. To do so,
authorities likely focused on what is known as a
"public key" and a "private key."
...
Federal agents could have seized DarkSide's private keys by planting
a human spy inside DarkSide's network, hacking the computers where
their private keys and passwords were stored, or compelling the
service that holds their private wallet to turn them over via search
warrant or other means.
However, as industry experience with the cloud matures - and we see a more complete picture of cloud lifecycle on a company's economics - it's becoming evident that while cloud clearly delivers on its promise early on in a company's journey, the pressure it puts on margins can start to outweigh the benefits, as a company scales and growth slows. Because this shift happens later in a company's life, it is difficult to reverse as it;s a result of years of development focused on new features, and not infrastructure optimization.
This year, for the first time, the Census Bureau has added random
noise to its data that makes it slightly inaccurate at the smallest,
most zoomed-in level, but accurate at an aggregate, wide-angle
view. The approach, known as "differential privacy," aims
to protect the anonymity of census respondents amid a glut of
third-party online data that could otherwise make it possible to
personally identify census respondents.
...
But, in something of a surprise, Duchin also found that this noise
might actually make it more difficult to do extreme gerrymandering
in the new districts-which could actually complicate partisans'
designs for the 2022 congressional maps.
A review of Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know by Adam Grant.